The York School District will try again to add new fees on home construction as a way to pay for schools in a rapidly growing community.
The school district sent a letter in late June to county officials asking for a new study on development impact fees. Impact fees are charges on new construction where revenue is intended to help pay public infrastructure costs brought on by community growth. School impact fees are charged exclusively on new residences.
Impact fees have become common in the past decade across the Rock Hill region, home to some of the fastest-growing parts of the Charlotte region and the state of South Carolina. While cities and towns can charge impact fees for a wide range of public services, school impact fees require York County Council approval.
Council voted unanimously on Monday night to have its planning staff and planning commission study a new fee for York schools.
“This is to kick things off,” said County Manager Josh Edwards. “This is the first step.”
It’s unknown how much the new fee would charge. That figure comes from a study comparing existing school infrastructure, growth rates and the cost to serve new students. Consultant TischlerBise should have it completed by next month, according to the district letter to York County.
Council then has the option to approve the full amount, reduce it or deny the new fee entirely. That’s a process York schools know well.
York County schools and impact fees
For decades, Fort Mill schools had the only school impact fee in South Carolina. That district passed a $2,500 per home charge in 1996, right before the state eliminated it as an option. State law changed in recent years and Fort Mill schools asked York County in 2018 to approve a fee at more than $18,000 per home and $12,000 per apartment.
The county approved that full amount.
Clover schools then came to the county asking for more than $15,000 per new home. The county approved a fee in 2020, but at only $4,000 per home.
York schools asked the county four years ago for fees at more than $12,000 per home and $10,000 per apartment. The county didn’t approve anything.
Many western York County residents expressed frustration last year when Fort Mill returned with a request to increase fees there to nearly $30,000 per home and had it approved, while the county denies Clover’s request for the full amount it asked for in 2020. The county instead doubled the Clover fee to $8,000 per home, about half its requested amount.
“I don’t think it’s fair for people who are moving in to not have to pay their portion of the growth,” Lake Wylie resident Amanda Hauser told York County Council last fall. “And that the rest of the taxes then have to go up on us.”
New decision on York schools
County officials have given several reasons for the differing decisions, from demographics to tax levies to school bond approvals. They’ve offered concern for less affluent areas of the county that impact fees could price people out of starter homes or mobile homes.
The prior York decision not to start any fee came in part because schools wanted an all or nothing decision, York County Councilman William “Bump” Roddey later said in public meetings.
Council members didn’t offer many comments on Monday before allowing the study process to begin.
“I just hope that we’re not wasting their time with this,” said Councilman Andy Litten.
York hitting a growth wave
One argument York schools may have on their side this time around is the same one used for many years in Fort Mill. Just look at the growth.
Unincorporated Indian Land has been the highest growth part of the Rock Hill region for years, but the town of Fort Mill has been the high growth municipality. From 2020 to last summer, Fort Mill was the fastest-growing city or town in the Charlotte metro region, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
York was second. And from 2024 to last year, York was No. 1 with an 8% growth rate. Fort Mill was second at 6.8%. York surpassed 10,000 residents last year, according to census estimates.
Impact fees could help York get ahead of its growth curve in ways Fort Mill and the Clover district didn’t. Fort Mill opened a new school each of the past two years, and typically opens one every other year or so. Clover schools opened three new schools this fall, including two in fast-growing Lake Wylie.
Fort Mill has passed 10 school bond votes since 1992 as the district ballooned from four schools to 23.
Counting its technology center and alternative format school, York has 10 schools. District voters passed a $90 million school bond two years ago for a new middle school. With the opening of Lake Wylie High in the Clover district this fall, York is now the county’s only single high school district.
Once York’s impact fee study is complete, it will take several months for the planning commission and York County Council review. Council would have to vote three times to start a fee, a process that includes at least one public hearing.